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Sunday, December 18, 2005

Footprint memories

Today started out very cold for our parts - about 38 degrees. While we worked on one of the many fencing projects, the temp dropped, and blue sky turned very steel grey, lots of wind. By 2 pm we had a regular snowfall. I think we have about 1/2 " - being a Minnesota native, I would normally scoff, as the whole state goes into pandemonium when it snows here, often rightly so as there are few plows and usually snow means ice here. It dawned on me that the goats, who took shelter in their monkey house, had never seen snow, as they were born in March of '05. They looked out from their shelter as if to say "What in God's name has happened?" . They looked so cute in white on white. They had had a good day's work of cleaning more bamboo branches for us, so I brought them in early.

The positive part of being cold in the wind today as we worked, was I took refuge at one point under a 100 year old Doug Fir by the house. Standing under it, as the wind blew in and out of it's branches, and the huge canapy of probably 20 feet or more, felt so protective - it reminded me of how I loved the same feeling as a child when I'd hang out in the sumac trees on a windy day, all alone, feeling protected.The wind drove me under the Fir, otherwise I would have just kept working. So thank you wind.

The farm looked so nice in the snow. It has been some time since I've had very cold hands even with thick gloves, and it reminded me that I much prefer thaw ground year round, with a bit of chilliness in winter. But this afternoon, as I put all the sheep and other animals away in their respective barns, I had many pleasant memories - I had forgotten how much I love snow tracks. I spent about 20 minutes tracing the steps of a covey of quail on our road, and the little cat paws were every where. It was just nice, like an old friend you never forget but don't think of on a daily basis, and then seeing their face, it is like they never left, and of course they haven't. I guess that is me and snow...We were pals way back since I could crawl in it.

One of the Goats for Peacet-shirts was sold to someone in a town in Texas I did not recognize. We had hopes it might be near Crawford...

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